The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-04-23
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
A PERENNIAL WONDER.

PERENNIAL WONDER.
From time to time are reported supposed ex
traordinary and unparalleled cases of change in
the color Of the human skin-whites turning black
and blacks turning white-and it may be worth
noticing that this striking affection is by no means
a new or very one. The disease is called
leucoderma, and it is well known among whites,
though apparently more frequent in the dark
skinned races. Erasmus Wilson gave as frequency
in London as not less than l in 400 cases of skin
disease, and, according to Kaposi, it is in Vienna
l in 500; but Garden, in India, met with l in
36.2 cases of skin disease, and Bombay inquiries
into leprosy disclosed great number of these
cases.
s s RAILWAY SPEEDS
In an English discussion of railway speeds it
appears that rigid tests with a Bristol and Exeter
engine, with 9-foot single driving-wheels, gave
so miles an hour as the greatest attainable rate
down an incline of l in 80 with no load, and sim
gle car reducing this to rs miles. A Great West
ern engine, with S-foot wheels, could do no better
than rs miles down l in 100. On level or as
cending grade the maximum can be but little more
than 60 miles an hour. As these engines were
designed especially for giving the greatest posi-
BILE speed, it is affirmed that modern motors are
adapted for beating their records and that reports
of train running at more than rs miles an hour,
even for the shortest distances, must be due to
inaccurate timing or other errors.
AsTERoID COMETS.
While agreeing in general with the theory that
comets have their origin beyond the limits of the
solar system, Prof. Daniel Kirkwood finds proof
that some of those of short period are minor
planets whose orbits in the asteroid zone have
been changed through the perturbing influence of
the larger planets The third comet of 1884, for
instance seems to have been drawn from the as
teroids by Jupiter in May, 1875.
INDIAN CONSUMPTION.
kha lost Of he nd nc
cording to DR.. Washington Matthews, the chief is
consumption. Census returns show that, while
the death rate among Europeans is 17.74 per
thousand, and that among Africans is 1928, the
rate among the Indians is no less than 23.6; and
that, while among the whites 166 deaths in the
thousand are from consumption, and among the
negroes 1S6, there are ESQ among the Indians
The influence of civilization has greatly increased
the consumption rate among the Indians-the eff
feet seeming to be partly due to change of diet,
and partly to causes not yet understood.
PLANT ALLIES
While some forms of fungus are most destruc-
tive to vegetation, it is now believed that there
are others which render assistance to the plants
on which they live. Frank found that fungus
covering the young root points of certain forest
trees, as the beech and the oak, seems to help in
the nutrition of those trees. Another interesting
case has lately been studied in Germany by Wahr-
Itch, who finds that yellow bladder-like fungus
of the roottissue of orchids works no perceptible
harm to the plants, but on the contrary probably
aids them by changing woody matters into form
that they may more readily absorb.
HEALTH IN FLOWERS.
Eight years of almost continuous personal ex-
pertinent has confirmed the early view of DIR. j.
M. Anders that house-plants are entitled to very
high rank among sanitary agents. In new work
he even asserts the conviction that loving plants
serves as an efficient protection against consump-
IL. at
service in other conditions of disease. An abund-
ance of flowers, indeed, seems to offer an imper-
feet substitute for outdoor life when in door life is
unavoidable.
IN CHANGING WORLD.
Biologists have described Britain as swarming
with multitude of forms of gigantic reptiles,
some of them sixty feet or more in length, during
the reptilian age-the middle period in the earh's
geological history, when mollusks and reptiles
attained their elimination and declined, and when
the first mammals and the first birds appeared
A striking picture of England at a later epoch
the middle Quarternary-is given by Owen "Gi-
gantic elephants, of nearly twice the bulk of the
largest individuals that now exist in Ceylon and
Africa, roamed here in herds, if we may judge
from the abundance of their remains. Two-horned
rhinoceroses of at least two species, forced their
way through the ancient forests, or wallowed in
the swamps. The lakes and rivers were tenanted
by appropriateness, bulky and with as formid-
able tusks as those of Africa" Three kinds of
wild oxen found subsistence in the plains. There
were also gigantic deer, wild horses and boars,
wildcat, lynx, leopard, British tiger larger
than that of Bengal, and another and even more
terrible carnivorous monster with sabre-shaped
CANNES eight inches long. Troops of hyenas prey
ed upon dead carcases and feebler quadrupeds.-
There was savage bear larger than the Rocky
Mountain grizzly, gigantic beaver, wolves, and
various smaller animals, down to BATS moles, rats
and mice.
PROPERTIES OF THE ETHER.
Arguing from what is known of the transmits
sion of light and heat to the earth, Mr.. De Volson
Wood concludes that the luminiferous ether, sup
posed to pervade all space, has density such
that volume of it equal to about twenty volumes
of the earth would weigh one pound, a tension
such that the pressure on square mile would be
about one pound, and specific heat such that it
would require as much heat to raise the tempera-
ture of one pound one degree as it would to raise
about 2,3OO,O00,O00 tons of water that amount.
MISCELLANEOUS.
An excellent carbon for electrical purposes is
now obtained from sea-weed.
Experience in Glasgow hospital has taught
DIR. j. S. Marine that boiled fried fish is a
dangerous diet for weak persons, but that steamed
fish is harmless. t+s